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Post by P40 ID on Sept 19, 2010 14:17:48 GMT 8
Hi all
nice website. I was hoping someone here maybe able to assist me with some research I am doing on a P-40 with US serial 40-481. I believe this particular aircraft served in the Phillipines during Dec 1941.
I have done some searches on the net and via other sources and have come up with zip, so any feedback or assistance with other research avenues would be very much appreciated.
thanks
Woodley
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Post by batteryboy on Sept 19, 2010 14:55:07 GMT 8
Hi Woodley,
P-40E serial number 40-481 arrived in the Philippines on September 29, 1941. Its allocation to a certain squadron eludes me for the moment but it could have either been with the following: 3rd PS, 17th PS and 21st PS. It is likely that is served with the 3rd PS as the squadron was the oldest one in the Philippines and received the first batch of P-40Es. The next candidate would be the 17th PS. The 21st PS arrived late in the Philippines so most likely is that they received the 2nd delivery of aircraft from Nov. 25, 1941.
HTH, Tony
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Post by PI P40 on Sept 19, 2010 17:28:07 GMT 8
Thanks
I was hoping to track its fate during this early period of the Pacific War. Gordon Birkett of ADF-Serials has provided me with....
"40-481 CW#124 c/n13356 PHAD#20 Philippines delivered to Philippines Sept 29, 1941 to 24th PG."
I'd like to try and add to its history if possible, I appreciate there is not alot around about the aircraft in the PI's but I need to exhaust all current informations.
Woodley
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Post by chadhill on Sept 19, 2010 22:10:10 GMT 8
According to Appendix A in Bartsch's outstanding book "Doomed at the Start", fifty new crated, unassembled P-40E's were received at the Philippine Air Depot, Nichols Field, on 29 SEP 41. The first batch of the aircraft serial numbers were 40-462 thru 40-483 (twenty two aircraft).
On page 23 Bartsch says that the 17th PS was to receive the first 25 assembled aircraft after its return to Nichols from gunnery training at Iba, on October 17. The 3rd PS would receive the second group of 25 aircraft.
If the aircraft were assembled and assigned to squadrons in the order of their serial numbers, then it would appear your 40-481 may have gone to the 17th Pursuit Squadron.
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Post by chadhill on Sept 20, 2010 11:30:46 GMT 8
Just out of curiosity, and because the accident rate was so high in those years (15,000+ US aircrew killed in training accidents during the war) I checked the accident-report.com website to see if the serial number was listed with them as an aircraft accident loss. It was not. Serial # 40-463, however, was listed as lost in the PI on 30 OCT 41. But I know there were many others, see Bartsch.
The 17th PS lost a P-40E on 30 OCT 41, flown by Second Lieutenant Jack Dale, when the engine failed and he tried to dead-stick it into Nichols. The plane was wrecked, and Dale suffered a fractured skull and ruptured spleen (Bartsch).
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Post by woodleyagain on Sept 20, 2010 18:18:43 GMT 8
Thanks for this, a couple of good sources for me to track down.
Does the book 'Doomed from the start' have any images that show in detail the scheme used by these PI based aircraft?
Are there any locations in the PI's where any of these aircraft (or relics thereof) are on display?
thanks
Woodley
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Post by batteryboy on Sept 20, 2010 19:39:04 GMT 8
I have most of the schemes that the USAAC squadrons flew in the P.I in the 41-42 campaign. Most ofthe P-40Es were in their standard Olive Drab 41 over Neutral Gray. the aircraft were painted in the states prior to delivery to the P.I. The 20th PS P-40Bs were also in the same scheme but they had their aircraft numbers painted in yellow on the lower front fuselage (cowl) and in the leading edge. Below is a model of Lt. Joe Moore's aircraft which i built: The 3rd PS P-40Es had some of their aircraft painted with a yellow nose and had the 3rd PS emblems on the fuselage just after the cockpit. Alas, no P-40s are left to be displayed here today. Cheers,
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Post by okla on Sept 20, 2010 23:06:33 GMT 8
Hey Chad....Don't you find it amazing that some short sighted Quartermaster guy in the states failed to include antifreeze with the shipments of the P-40s because it was felt, as I understand it, there was no priority since the PI were in the tropics. Of course, the precious liquid came on a later transport, but not having enough of it certainly cut into available flying hours for training on the new fighters. That little oversight was inexcusable, methinks. Just another "boo boo" in a campaign filled with "boo boos".
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Post by woodley2 on Sept 21, 2010 8:29:12 GMT 8
Thanks for all this, its great stuff and will certainly help with the ongoing research.
A couple of others I have found from this era include;
23 Oct 41 P-40E 40-506 17PS force landed due to engine failure at Nichols; and
30 Oct 41 P-40E 40-463 17 PS landing accident Nichols
both from Accident-reports.com
There is no mention of repairs and return to service or conversion etc.
cheers
woodley
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Post by chadhill on Sept 21, 2010 10:10:18 GMT 8
I've ordered from accident-reports.com, and can recommend them. Otherwise, it takes months to get the investigation reports from the military!
Okla, I didn't know that QM story about the P-40 antifreeze, very interesting. I'd heard of the problems they had with the P-40's .50 caliber headspacing and cartridge feeding. There was a similar problem with the F4F Wildcat's .50s at about this same time in the war, sometimes when they pulled G's while firing the guns would jam. That happened to Butch O'Hare's wingman, leaving him to face eight Betty bombers alone before they got to the USS Lexington in February '42. Makes one wonder why these things hadn't been worked out long before.
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